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Дневник провинциала в Петербурге
Зачем я в Петербурге? по какому случаю? - этого вопроса, по врожденной провинциалам неосмотрительности, я ни разу не задал себе, покидая наш постылый губернский город. Мы, провинциалы, устремляемся в Петербург как-то инстинктивно. Сидим-сидим - и вдруг тронемся. Губернатор сидит и вдруг надумается: толкнусь, мол, нет ли чего подходящего! Прокурор сидит - и тоже надумается: толкнусь-ка, нет ли чего подходящего! Партикулярный человек сидит - и вдруг, словно озаренный, начинает укладываться...
358 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2000
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About the author
Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin
490 books124 followersMikhail Saltykov was born on 27 January 1826 in the village of Spas-Ugol (modern-day Taldomsky District of the Moscow Oblast of Russia) as one of the eight children (five brothers and three sisters) in the large Russian noble family of Yevgraf Vasilievich Saltykov (1776—1851) and Olga Mikhaylovna Saltykova (née Zabelina) (1801—1874). His father belonged to an ancient Saltykov noble house that originated as one of the branches of the Morozov boyar family. According to the Velvet Book, it was founded by Mikhail Ignatievich Morozov nicknamed Saltyk (from the Old Church Slavonic word "saltyk" meaning "one's own way/taste"), the son of Ignaty Mikhailovich Morozov and a great-grandson of the founder of the dynasty Ivan Semyonovich Moroz who lived during the 14-15th centuries. The Saltykov family also shared the Polish Sołtyk coat of arms. It gave birth to many important political figures throughout history, including the Tsaritsa of Russia Praskovia Saltykova and her daughter, the Empress of Russia Anna Ioannovna.
Saltykov's mother was an heir to a rich Moscow merchant of the 1st level guild Mikhail Petrovich Zabelin whose ancestors belonged to the so-called trading peasants and who was granted hereditary nobility for his handsome donation to the army needs in 1812; his wife Marfa Ivanovna Zabelina also came from wealthy Moscow merchants. At the time of Mikhail Saltykov's birth, Yevgraf was fifty years old, while Olga was twenty five. Mikhail spent his early years on his parents' large estate in Spasskoye on the border of the Tver and Yaroslavl governorates, in the Poshekhonye region.
"In my childhood and teenage years I witnessed serfdom at its worst. It saturated all strata of social life, not just the landlords and the enslaved masses, degrading all classes, privileged or otherwise, with its atmosphere of a total lack of rights, when fraud and trickery were the order of the day, and there was an all-pervading fear of being crushed and destroyed at any moment," he remembered, speaking through one of the characters of his later work Old Years in Poshekhonye. Life in the Saltykov family was equally difficult. Dominating the weak, religious father was despotic mother whose intimidating persona horrified the servants and her own children. This atmosphere was later recreated in Shchedrin's novel The Golovlyov Family, and the idea of "the devastating effect of legalized slavery upon the human psyche" would become one of the prominent motifs of his prose. Olga Mikhaylovna, though, was a woman of many talents; having perceived some in Mikhail, she treated him as her favourite.
The Saltykovs often quarrelled; they gave their children neither love nor care and Mikhail, despite enjoying relative freedom in the house, remembered feeling lonely and neglected. Another thing Saltykov later regretted was his having been completely shut out from nature in his early years: the children lived in the main house and were rarely allowed to go out, knowing their "animals and birds only as boiled and fried." Characteristically, there were few descriptions of nature in the author's works.
Saltykov's mother was an heir to a rich Moscow merchant of the 1st level guild Mikhail Petrovich Zabelin whose ancestors belonged to the so-called trading peasants and who was granted hereditary nobility for his handsome donation to the army needs in 1812; his wife Marfa Ivanovna Zabelina also came from wealthy Moscow merchants. At the time of Mikhail Saltykov's birth, Yevgraf was fifty years old, while Olga was twenty five. Mikhail spent his early years on his parents' large estate in Spasskoye on the border of the Tver and Yaroslavl governorates, in the Poshekhonye region.
"In my childhood and teenage years I witnessed serfdom at its worst. It saturated all strata of social life, not just the landlords and the enslaved masses, degrading all classes, privileged or otherwise, with its atmosphere of a total lack of rights, when fraud and trickery were the order of the day, and there was an all-pervading fear of being crushed and destroyed at any moment," he remembered, speaking through one of the characters of his later work Old Years in Poshekhonye. Life in the Saltykov family was equally difficult. Dominating the weak, religious father was despotic mother whose intimidating persona horrified the servants and her own children. This atmosphere was later recreated in Shchedrin's novel The Golovlyov Family, and the idea of "the devastating effect of legalized slavery upon the human psyche" would become one of the prominent motifs of his prose. Olga Mikhaylovna, though, was a woman of many talents; having perceived some in Mikhail, she treated him as her favourite.
The Saltykovs often quarrelled; they gave their children neither love nor care and Mikhail, despite enjoying relative freedom in the house, remembered feeling lonely and neglected. Another thing Saltykov later regretted was his having been completely shut out from nature in his early years: the children lived in the main house and were rarely allowed to go out, knowing their "animals and birds only as boiled and fried." Characteristically, there were few descriptions of nature in the author's works.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 24, 2019
Лучший способ заставить о себе говорить – плюнуть людям в душу. Неважно, как ты мыслишь на самом деле. Главное, добейся гневного отклика, чтобы у людей появилось стремление возмущаться твоим мнением, вплоть до желания тебя придушить. Ежели будешь действовать иначе, умасливать и обходить острые углы – никто и не задумается о твоей личности. Собственно, подобное поведение с древнейших времён служит на пользу всякому, кому нужна популярность. Будущие поколения, с той же пеной у рта, станут спорить о тобою совершённом, а многие и вовсе будут оправдывать. Что же, самобичевание у человечества не отнять. Вот и Салтыков задумал описать обыденность, на протяжении 1872 года публикуя в “Отечественных записках” “Дневник провинциала в Петербурге”.
(c) Trounin
(c) Trounin
May 21, 2024
Значит так. Салтыков-Щедрин всё более вызывает у меня смешанные чувства. В целом это чувство «trying too hard to impress”. Мне нравятся его описания людей, их говорящие фамилии, перечисление должностей и обязательств, выпивание настоек в кабаках, поедание рябчиков в трактирах и прочее и прочее. Однако, стиль и в целом повествование этого произведения наводят на меня скуку, тоску и желание побыстрей закончить это произведение.
Начало, бесспорно, интересное: гулянья в Петербурге: лангусты, выпивка, театры и так далее. Выпил главный герой с теми, потом с другими, что, свойственно, логично для Петербурга. Однако, потом в повествовании начинается абсурд: делёж миллиона между родственниками, общество каких-то пенкоснимателей (которому отводится неприлично много времени) и многие многие другие моменты, которые мне, как читателю, совершенно не интересны. Увы.
Начало, бесспорно, интересное: гулянья в Петербурге: лангусты, выпивка, театры и так далее. Выпил главный герой с теми, потом с другими, что, свойственно, логично для Петербурга. Однако, потом в повествовании начинается абсурд: делёж миллиона между родственниками, общество каких-то пенкоснимателей (которому отводится неприлично много времени) и многие многие другие моменты, которые мне, как читателю, совершенно не интересны. Увы.
June 2, 2024
Ничего не меняется
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews